Toronto had been a really strong home team in the past couple of years, but I do think that it's a tougher ball park to play in for the most part because of the turf. A team like the Yankees with a weak infield could be eaten up but on the flip side they have guys that make a lot of hard contact but get eaten up by shifts.

That's the thing about the Astros that I observed in this past series, they're shifting on every hitter just like the Rays do. They didn't get burned on them in the 3 game sample size. Good shifting is probably worth 5-10 wins on defense.

I'm hyped for Tanaka though. I do worry about his ground ball tendencies leading to the Yankee defense screwing him a bit.

I agree and I don't. I think the Astros are a terrible matchup for the Yankees and by virtue of this I think the Yankees are going to struggle a lot with TB. The defensive shifts ate the Yankees up. They shifted every hitter, now that level of preparation won't be there the whole year, but they had everything played perfectly. Tampa, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh have all found ways to add value and pick up wins on defense through the shift.

Just to put into context how good 7 IP and 8 Ks with no walks is against the Jays. Last year the Blue Jays had the 7th lowest strike out rate and 11th highest walk rate. A consensus top 10 offense this year. He only really gave up 1 run when you consider defensive miscues(error and two balls the Yankees got a glove on). Still the turf will do that to a GB pitcher. Oh and the Jays were in the bottom half of the league in terms of GB%. Great debut by Tanaka against a good lineup that had seen him in Spring. Put down 12 straight and 16 of his last 18.

His fastball velocity pre injury was 94.7 MPH on average. In one start he's amassed more win value than Montero or Noesi, the guys the Yankees traded. He still needs to start twice before they have a good indication of his velocity on top of staying healthy, but this performance was encouraging. Tanaka and Pineda have frontline potential along with Nova who is probably a tier behind those guys. Very encouraging stuff.

Meanwhile idk what it is but Milwaukee had Boston's number but then again Boston always seems to lose badly to random NL teams.

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The shoulder surgery last offseason had his arm slot placement all fucked up. This year I couldn't really tell you what it's been thus far. He started badly against Houston then shut them down for 4 innings. Today he was rolling then he got BABIP'd into a rough inning. It's funny how 1 run can change the perception of your line.

That was weird. The Brewer's lineup just seemed to click, they have good pieces just a complete and utter lack of depth or pitching.